title: Peculiar magnetism of BiFeO3 nanoparticles with size approaching the period of the spiral spin structure.
abstract: Size effect of multiferroics is important for its potential applications in new type miniaturized multifunctional devices and thus has been widely studied. However, is there special size effect in the materials with spiral modulated spin structure (such as BiFeO3)? It is still an issue to be investigated. In this report, structural, magnetic and magnetoelectric coupling properties are investigated for sol-gel prepared BiFeO3 nanoparticles with various sizes. It is found that a structural anomaly arises for the particles with size close to the 62 nm period of the spiral modulated spin structure, which induces an obviously increased ferromagnetism. In addition, large magnetoelectric coupling effect is observed in 62 nm BiFeO3 nanoparticles. Our result provides another insight into the size effect of BiFeO3, and also a clue to the magnetic structure at nanoscale.
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Physics School, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Fengzhen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Zhijun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiaomei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Junting
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Kangli
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Min
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Ruixia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ti
authors.forename: TingTing
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Ju
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yue
authors.forename: Jinsong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu